Celebrating Blessed Fr. Stanley Rother

This week in Spanish we have been celebrating the life and martyrdom of Fr. Stanley Rother, who will be beatified tomorrow. For these Oklahoma kids, it has been fascinating to learn about someone who grew up here in Oklahoma, had such a difficult time with Latin that he was asked to leave the seminary, but eventually went on to learn Spanish and Tzutujil so well that he helped to translate the New Testament into the Mayan Tzutujil language.

Together we prayed the Our Father in Spanish and English, and then we listened to an audio clip of the Our Father in Tzutujil, and read the transcription of it. The students were surprised how completely different Tzutujil is from Spanish!

We talked about the beautiful weaving done by the Mayans in Guatemala and the love that went into the creation of Fr. Rother's stole. We examined chalecos and huipiles, and learned about the significance of different patterns and colors.

 

Some of our classes created their own bookmarks with patterns similar to Mayan weavings. One pattern was a secret code that the students deciphered by using the Spanish color words. Another was based off of the pattern used for Fr. Rother's beatification.

Other classes created their own Guatemalan worry dolls, and read stories about how the dolls are used.

Our buddies love combining classes and working together!